Jon Richardson – Dogmatic
The show started 15 minutes late due to an earlier power failure. The room is a small portakabin and very hot and airless. There was a full house for the show expecting an evenings entertainment and we weren’t disappointed.
Jon started the show trying to explain that he wasn’t as grumpy as the press reviews made him out to be, then made the mistake of doing a brilliant ad-lib to a latecomer, which meant that (as he explained) the expectations for the evening had been raised a little too high. He told us about where he was staying in Edinburgh and how it’s nice to be away from the crowds, then segued into the fact than he is currently living alone in Swindon (small town near Bristol). We were told way too much about his fabulous single lifestyle, including the mention of baths, rose-petals and satin sheets for nights alone, spending all day cooking a meal for himself and photographing the results to send to his friends and the fact that he has invented a number of imaginary friends that he lives with (and sometimes travels with).
We were asked if the UK was doing OK and after the inevitable negative we were told why this was a silly attitude and we should be more positive about what we have, rather than negative about what we don’t. He then started talking about people he didn’t like and why (generally it was specific people, not any sort of general hatred). After this was the tale of the trip to Cornwall to find his inner friend and the consequences of that disaster, and also about his one fight where he never actually joined in so it probably doesn’t count.
Jon is a pleasant and engaging comedian who can regularly be heard with Russell Howard on BBC6 radio. In this show he demonstrated that he is also a confident conversational comedian who is not afraid to share the strange things in his life with an audience. This was a very entertaining hour of comedy and well worth the price of admission.
Visit the Fringe Website for booking details.